There’s a game I play in martial arts classes called the A/B Game.
It’s simple.
When I say “A,” students fire off a given technique as fast as they can.
When I say “B,” they stay frozen.
My goal is to mess them up by getting them to fire off the technique on “B.”
Their goal is to have such great focus that they don’t even so much as flinch on “B.”
In the early stages of the game, getting flinchers is relatively easy—some because they’re just unfocused; some because they’re too focused on being fast; and some because they need to mess up before they actually understand the game.
As the game progresses, there’s usually a handful who are hard to mess up—so, I’ll pull out one of my tricks from my bag.
Right before I call “A” or “B,” I’ll nonchalantly say… “Okay, now I want you to beat the person next to you. Don’t let them beat you…okay? Ready…”
And then quickly yell “B!” …And get a huge chunk of students to flinch. It works almost every time.
…Why?
Because instead of focusing on themselves, I got them to focus on the others. Instead of focusing on doing their best, they were distracted on being THE best and lost connection with their focused mind.
See… When we focus on beating everybody else; on racing the person next to us; on trying to be the best—we lose sight of the most important thing… focus on ourself.
P.s. I also published 46 Impactful Bruce Lee Quotes from Striking Thoughts today.